What Your Heart Rate is Telling You

Heart-rate monitoring is undoubtedly the latest fitness craze. More often than not, you spot joggers on the street so consumed in the state-of-the-art equipment plastered on their wrist that they risk running in the road in the middle of oncoming traffic. Or you visit a tech-savvy fitness facility with heart rate metrics displayed on a screen, and the users are too busy watching the pretty colors fluctuate that they lose sight of what that data truly means.

Put aside the fact that strapping on a nifty, high-tech device on your body makes you look the part. At the end of the day, looks only go so far. It’s how you interpret that information that will categorize you as a fitness guru and facilitate the internal body changes at the cellular level. Only then will you experience external changes.

At Orangetheory Fitness, they capitalize on heart-rate high intensity interval training as a tool for their members to glean insights from their performance and embark on a path of continuous improvement.

But first things first. Let’s take a moment to analyze what these pretty colors you see on a screen at an Orangetheory studio means to you.

Grey Zone (50-60% Maximum Heart Rate)– This is the safest, most comfortable zone, consisting of very light activity.

Blue Zone (61-70% Maximum Heart Rate) – This zone is specifically geared for warm up and cool down exercises. You are merely preparing your body and mind for high intensity interval training, but you haven’t unleashed the burn just yet.

Green Zone (71-83% Maximum Heart Rate) – In this zone, you have reached a challenging but doable pace. This is what Orangetheory categorizes as “Base Pace,” a pace that you can maintain for 20-30 total minutes. Your body starts to burn fat and carbohydrates evenly.

Orange Zone (84-91% Maximum Heart Rate) – This is where the magic happens and where you achieve “EPOC” (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) – what we call the “Orange Effect / Afterburn.” The goal is to accumulate 12 minutes or more in this zone within a 60-minute period to achieve the maximum caloric burn up to 36 hours AFTER your workout is completed.

Red Zone (92-100% Maximum Heart Rate) – This zone happens organically and may be achieved during ‘All Out’ efforts when you’re emptying the tank and using every ounce of energy left in your body. You don’t need to set an All Out pace for more than 1 minute at a time to experience maximum results.

The term “splat” was kind of thrown into the descriptions of the heart rate zone levels outlined above. But what does it mean, exactly? Just imagine the sound of a fat cell exploding. We all can agree that we like the sound of that, right? In the world of Orangetheory, splat points indicate minutes spent in the orange and red zones.

Orangetheory co-founder Ellen Latham and the OTF fitness experts challenge us to aim for at least 12 splat points per class to achieve optimal caloric burn, even after your one-hour workout is done.

So – does training in the grey and blue zone mean that you’ve achieved nothing? That you should have instead enjoyed that greasy Big Mac and French Fries? Absolutely not. You still become healthier in the grey and blue zones, and you’re preparing your body for an increased rate of fat burning, but you haven’t burned any fat just yet. Put the burger down, and keep pushing. Your fitness journey doesn’t start today and end tomorrow – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Similarly, does training in the orange and red zones to accumulate as many splat points as possible mean that you are necessarily getting the most out of your workout? Certainly not. Unless you are the energizer bunny or a hamster actively spinning its wheel to the point of physical exhaustion, your goal should not be to live in the orange and red zones the entire time. You are essentially beating your body up to the core, causing an excess level of physical and emotional stress on your muscles and ligaments. Don’t be fooled by the overwhelming urge to push yourself to the extreme and then be disheartened by the fact that your neighbors are progressing at a faster rate than you and aren’t killing themselves in the studio.

You must listen to your own body. Orangetheory is 5 zone heart rate based interval training workout; the basis being interval training, which means fluctuations in heart rate and intensity. These variations are what creates an oxygen deficit within the body – thus creating EPOC. While you want to challenge (push) yourself during a workout, you want to ensure that you are allowing your body proper time to recover between efforts. This allows you to challenge yourself more during the Push and All Out moments.

Think of your base pace, the green zone, as your home’s foundational structure. The walls that add a framework to your house will eventually crumble if they aren’t situated on a sturdy base foundation. When you have worked to build your base pace, only then can you enjoy the benefits of the Orange. In this zone, you reap the benefits of filtering more oxygen through your cells, which will eventually lead to more All Out moments.

Say you’ve uncovered that glossy new heart rate monitor from its pristine packaging. Are you going to fall into the trap of being so enamored by the technical features that the data gets overlooked? Or are you going to take the time to understand your body’s performance in the different heart rate zones and enlist in a fitness routine backed by science?

The choice is yours. But Orangetheory is here to help! Take advantage of their proprietary OTbeat technology and take your training to the next level. Remember, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. We are your accountability partners.

There are two locations in the Buffalo area located at 8242 Transit Rd and 1551 Niagara Falls Blvd. Mention this article to their front desk staff for your first free class!

Read This Month’s Issue

Join Our Mailing List

Listen to Our Radio Health Tips

Messages from the Publisher

Calendar

About Buffalo Healthy Living Magazine

Buffalo Healthy Living Magazine (BHL) is a FREE full color monthly magazine and NYS benefit corporation. Our mission is to provide evidence-based information to improve the health, fitness and nutrition for people of all ages. BHL is available in 2,000 area locations, with 105,000 people reading us in print monthly and thousands more connecting with us online. BHL is available at all Wegmans and Tops stores as well as other food markets. We are at hospitals, medical and dental offices, fitness centers, cafes, restaurants, office buildings, libraries, schools, and select Tim Hortons and 711 stores. We welcome writers, advertisers, and article suggestions. Becoming a legally-incorporated benefit corporation means that BHL has met the highest standards of corporate purpose, accountability, and transparency to create a material positive impact on society and the environment, that we have a fiduciary duty to consider the interests of our stakeholder, and are required to report on our overall social and environmental performance yearly.